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4/5 rDev +11.7%look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

From BeerAdvocate Magazine Volume II, Issue III:

Pours out a hazy golden-orange brew, head retention is par for the style. Aromas of green bananas, pear juice and faint lime are mixed with an underlying breadiness and chalky yeast. Very smooth with a semi-chewy medium body. Lots of wheat and yeast on the tongue, hops and herbal phenolics drop a substantial smack of bitterness on the palate with a long linger. Light on the fruity esters with suggestions of pear, banana and kiwi. Hint of bubblegum in the middle right when the maltiness rises with some sweetness and breadiness. Finishes a little dry with lots of lingering flavor.

Impressive, this tastes like a fresh German Hefeweizen, fresh meaning right from the source and not shipped from another continent. Kudos to Hale's for getting this style right!

A solid effort, but this does not come close to Franziskaner or even Paulaner. Pours hazy gold with a puffy white head. Good aroma of bananas and candied sugar, with some wheat. The taste is dominated by the wheat and yeast, but fades towards the back with the sweetness taking over. Enjoyable and worth a try, but you'll end up wanting to drop the same amount of money on a better beer next time.

Flavor is dead on for an American/German-style hefeweiss. Very lemony/citrusy. Good wheat flavor, not just for show, and fresh. Moderate bitterness. A good bit of clove. The only fault I can find with this beer is that the lemon flavor is a little strong...I wonder if there's something added.

I should note that my bottle had a bunch of sediment firmly in the bottom -- agitating it produced a much cloudier pour with no damage to the flavor, while reducing the carbonation nicely.

Having moved to Seattle from Boston this could totally challenge UFO as my every day drinking hefeweiss.

Hale's El Jefe pours a clearer than might be expected hefe. It's hazy - even quite hazy - but not cloudy. You really need to stir up that yeast! And, once it's in there it helps round the flavor. Golden in color. Bright-white frothy head. Retention should be better. Lacing could be better. The nose is phenolic, but plastic-like rather than banana-like. Lots of fruit. Peach. Green banana. Apple. Dull plum. Interesting. In the mouth it's light-medium in body with a crisp effervescence. The flavor shows some more of the yeasty phenolic character, but otherwise it's clean. Basic. Wheatish malt. Lots of yeasty fruitiness. Just lightly sweet. Well-balanced. Finishes short and dry. Not too phenolic. A decent American weizen.

Appearance- Reasonably cloudy gold/yellow with a decent, but not great white head. Head settles out VERY quickly, leaving no lace.

Aroma- Good, clean, failry sour aroma. Smells of fresh lemons. Not much in the way of banana or clove. Smells very tart. Hmmm...

Taste- Tastes fare more interesting than it smells. Fairly sour and tart with a bite at the back of the throat. Lots of green apple in the aft-taste. Hint of banana and clove. Not as much as some hefes. Kind of spicey for a hefe, but it's not unpleasant. Missing some things I expect in a hefe, but it's interesting enough to where I wouldn't mind trying another one.

Mouthfeel- Medium body for hefe, but not as chewy as you might expect. Good carbonation level. Nice CO2 bite.

Drinkability- Very refreshing. Still lacks something I expect in a hefe, including the clove and banana. But I would definately give this a whirl.

Poured into a weizen glass. Pours a medium straw amber with light gold notes with a thin white head that dissipates to patches. Aroma of wheat, mild citrus and banana and clove. Flavor follows with semi-sweet wheat, mildly bready and light banana and clove, developing more lemon citrus before a mild wheat, slightly tart finish. Light bodied with active carbonation. A good domestic take on a hefeweizen with a classic balance of flavors, but a bit on the light side; I was left wanting a bit more robustness in the pleasant flavors. The light touch made the slight tartness a bit more noticeable than it should have been. Still a good, enjoyable light hefe.

The beer after decanting the 22-ounce bottle pours a cloudy amber color with a prestigious creamy white head that settles leaving the lace to form a solid sheet on the glass. Nose is earthy, sweet with wheat, citrus like crispness, spicy, start is pleasantly sweet, decent grain profile; just a light touch of bitterness at the back, top is light to moderate in feel. Finish has a mild to medium acidity, the hops understated but present and accounted for, sweetness carries on until the end, fairly dry, and a nice clean and refreshing beer to start off a Sunday afternoon.

22 oz bomber poured into a weisbierglas. Big frothy white head of at least 1.5 inches fills to the top. I don't really pick up much nose, maybe some hops.
First pull tastes faintly lemony or fruity in some way. Next I start smelling bathroom cleaner and, by goodness, I think I'm drinking the 'scrubbing bubbles'.
I poured out the remaining 2/3 of the bottle. This offering from Hale's falls far short of Widmer or Pyramid for sure. It's not even on the same scale as the Bavarians.
When I studied in Seattle in the early 1990's, Hale's Pale Ale was the first micro that I really, really liked. Bummer, El Jefe tastes like the boss of the janitors!

An off beat bottle of an unknown ale found at the Beverage Warehouse in Culver City, I wonder what is inside, Maybe something good and Maybe something bad.

Poured in to my Paulaner Weissbier glass I get a good frothy and foamy head and the proper cloudy gold/yellow color with a puffy white head. Head dies a little too quickly though.

Smell is good candied and spiced bananas and phenols. Slightly stronger in the cloves and spice end of the Hefeweiss spectrum. Good clean Hefe smell though it is exactly as it should be.

Taste is slightly dry and tart with a good spice and cloves flavor in the mouth at the beginning. Banana kicks in a bit more after a while and lemon tartness too. This is quite a tasty Hefe that tends to be on the tart and spicy end of the beer style. Faintly detectable bitterness from hops. Slight lingering malt sweetness in the after taste.

Mouthfeel is good.

A quite good Hefe Weizen no matter where it was made. Flavor is spot on for the style. A good drinker that I probably would have liked better if it were warmer outside. An extremely competent German Style Hefe Weizen made in the USA.